The children in Toddler 1 at RisingOaks Early Learning | St. Brigid, really enjoys participating in sensory play. One morning the educators had put together some sand and loose parts in the tuff tray. They enjoyed using the cars to cover the rocks with sand.
The next day we wanted to reuse the sand in another way. Educator Trish taped some plastic tubes on the side of the sensory bin. We then added the sand and some water in to make mud. The children loved using the scoops and spoons to scoop up the mud and then try to use their hand eye coronation to dump the mud into the tubes. Some children even felt a little adventurous and wanted to use their hands to scoop up the mud! When the children were using their hands to play in the mud, they were using different muscles in their hands such as squishing, squeezing, scooping, and pouring.
Mud play is so important for the children to develop and foster their fine motor skills. During this activity the children also had to demonstrate turn taking and using their patience to wait for their turn.
What’s Next? We will continue to expand on the children’s interest. We can add different materials such as shaving cream to see how the sand could feel different.
